Some time ago, an anonymous source provided me with two documents created by Chartwells K-12, the food service management company that currently operates in 600 districts, serving 2 million school meals a day. On their face, the documents appear to expressly encourage Chartwells districts to serve children fewer whole grain foods than recommended by the latest federal dietary guidance.
As you may remember, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue caused a stir last May when he announced that his agency plans to extend a waiver program relating to whole grains and school food. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) had required that by the 2014-15 school year, all grain foods (pasta, breads, etc.) served at breakfast and lunch had to be “whole grain-rich,” meaning that a least half the grain in the food must be whole grain (the other half can still be white flour or other processed grain.) But when some districts complained that it was hard to source satisfactory products, like a good whole-grain pasta, the Obama administration started a waiver program allowing districts showing hardship to opt out of the grain requirement on a product-by-product basis. Once a school obtained a waiver, only half of its grain foods had to be whole-grain rich — meaning kids in those districts could be eating as little as 25 percent whole grain.
This program was intended to be a temporary fix while food manufacturers caught up to the HHFKA mandate and while kids got used to more whole grains in their meals. By and large, both of those things have happened, and currently only 15 percent of districts have sought the waiver. So by proposing to indefinitely extend the program, Perdue is essentially gutting the HHFKA’s science-based grain standard — despite the fact that eating more whole grains is associated with reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, and that American children currently consume too many refined grains.
With this background in mind, now take a look at the Charwells documents, which you can read in full by clicking on them. The first is a PowerPoint outlining what the company refers to as its “Whole Grain Waiver Strategy:”
The second is a set of talking points to accompany the PowerPoint, entitled “Key Messaging for Support of Whole Grain Waiver Program:”
As you’ll see in these documents, the company seems to embrace the extension of grain waivers with some enthusiasm. For example, instead of referring to waivers as short-term detours on the road to full compliance with the HHFKA’s whole grain-rich standard, Chartwells instead refers to waivers as “successes” to be emulated in order to boost student participation:
The company also offers guidance and assistance to districts for obtaining waivers, such as providing completed samples and the talking points:
My anonymous source claims that he/she was told by a third party that Chartwells has pressured all of its districts to “get on board” with this whole grain waiver strategy, and he/she believes that this presentation was made around the country — even in districts that had not previously expressed difficulty in complying with the HHFKA grain standard.
I’ve now twice spoken at length about the Chartwell’s waiver strategy with Margie Saidel, MPH, RD, LDN, Chartwells’s vice president of nutrition, culinary, and sustainability, and here’s what I’ve learned:
First, Saidel told me that it’s unfair to view the “Whole Grain Waiver Strategy” as a concerted effort to get Chartwells districts to offer fewer whole-grain rich foods, though there does appear to be an effort to get districts to apply for waivers so they’re at the ready in case a district wants to use them. “‘Strategy’ might have been too strong a word,” Saidel told me. “It really was ‘instructions’ about how to get a waiver. Most of our school districts don’t know anything about how to get a waiver, so we had to teach them how to do it. And once you have the waiver, there’s no obligation to change your menu at all. It’s just something that’s available if and when you want to take advantage of it with one product or another, then you’re ready.”
I asked Saidel several times in both phone calls how many Chartwells districts have sought waivers, but she declined to provide this information, saying that assessment was something the company planned to “look into” in the near future.
Chartwells also clearly regards the use of whole grain waivers as a useful tool in boosting participation. After discussing the recognized benefits of eating school meals, Saidel told me that “in cases where districts wanted to get more kids into the program for those very nutritious, balanced meals, let’s not continue with a whole grain product that they don’t like and then stop participating in the program.” In particular, Saidel said the company is focusing on helping districts get waivers for four products especially popular with kids: pizza crust, biscuits, tortillas and pasta. ” Sometimes you want your familiar foods to be your familiar food,” she told me, “so let’s not mess with those things.”
When I pointed out that the Chartwells documents seem to encourage getting waivers for many other foods besides those named four, including French toast sticks, waffles, bagels and hoagie buns, Saidel seemed to back away from the documents, saying that Chartwells doesn’t source “enriched” (meaning non-whole-grain-rich) versions of those other foods. “As you know,” she said,” the food service industry comes up with products that are whole grain-rich, but there’s nothing necessarily healthy about them. And we’re rejecting them. There are whole grain donuts, whole grain funnel cakes, we’re not serving those. That’s our strategy, not what you saw in those two documents.”
I was curious to see if this higher standard for grain foods was evident on Chartwells menus. While it’s hard to do a survey of all Chartwells districts, as its name doesn’t necessarily appear on menus, I was able to find this month’s breakfast menu in Kaukauna, WI, a Chartwells district. Like most other districts around the country, it features school food formulations of highly processed breakfast items like Pop Tarts, Cocoa Puffs Bars, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal:
But the bulk of my two conversations with Saidel centered around a new program launched by Chartwells last year, in partnership with a company called InHarvest, to bring more “intact whole grains” like farro and quinoa into schools. According to Saidel, Chartwells believes it’s far more important to offer children 100 percent intact whole grains than it is to focus on offering whole grain-rich versions of kids’ favorites, like pizza, tortillas and biscuits; offering the latter can drive participation down, turning children away from healthy school meals, the company believes, while the whole grain in such products is nutritionally inferior to intact whole grains.
“We’ve brought the intact whole grain element into the equation,” Saidel said, “which even the USDA isn’t talking about. That’s where the excitement lies. How can we get kids to really enjoy real, intact, 100 precent, very delicious whole grains like wheat berries, farro, and quinoa? They see them now in restaurants and in food courts, so now is the time we really want to seize on this opportunity to really talk to kids about where they’re going to get their real nutrition , instead of in a whole-grain rich product that’s kind of better than no whole grain, but maybe is turning them off to some great nutrition.”
I have no quarrel with serving children more intact grains like farro and quinoa, but if that grain is essentially being served as a nutritional offset to more white flour products, it becomes important to ask:
- How many Chartwells schools are actually serving intact whole grains, and how often are they doing so?
- Why is there no mention at all of “intact whole grains” on either of its two waiver documents?
- And finally, if the goal is to “really talk to kids about where they’re going to get their real nutrition,” why is the only talking point for students on the “Key Messaging ” document one that seems intended to generate excitement about the return of white flour foods to the cafeteria?
Saidel could not give me specific figures on the number of Chartwells schools serving intact whole grains or how often they appear on actual school menus, though she did tell me that there are many well-tested recipes for intact whole grains in the Chartwells menu database for districts to use, and that the company’s chefs and dietitians actively encourage districts to menu these foods through a variety of methods, including demos and sampling. When I pressed for any other information that might help quantify the breadth of the intact grain program, Saidel sent this in an email last week:
As we discussed, our team of dietitians and chefs have thoughtfully developed our approach to whole grains to provide balance and flexibility on the menu to ensure that more kids are eating and there’s less waste. We also believe balance includes introducing nutrient-dense ingredients like intact whole grains through cafe and classrooms education, promotions and sampling, and ultimately incorporating more and more of these ingredients on the menu. This isn’t a change that’s going to happen overnight, but we’re making progress and already seeing success:
- After introducing intact whole grain during National Nutrition Month last March through demos, tips and recipes for families and a video, purchasing increased over 100%
- Intact whole grains were featured more than 27,000 times on menus
- We purchased 118,820 pounds of intact whole grains during the last school year
- We serve approximately 2 million meals each day
I’m not able to survey parents in 600 districts, but, purely anecdotally, the few parents I’ve spoken to in Chartwells’ districts have told me they haven’t yet seen any intact whole grains on their children’s menus. (One quote: “I have NEVER seen farro or quinoa on my kids menu. I would love if they were serving that!”) Similarly, for the past few days, I’ve reached out a few times on TLT’s Facebook page (12,000+ fans) and Twitter feed (almost 8000 followers) to parents in Chartwells districts asking if they’d ever seen intact whole grains in their district and, so far, no one has responded. But, again, this is hardly a scientific survey and I could easily be missing the majority of parents in these districts.
So, is Chartwells’ “intact whole grain” program a PR fig leaf intended to deflect attention from a strategy to bring more white flour foods into schools to boost participation? Or is it actually a good faith effort, one that’s only just getting off the ground, to bring kids more 100 percent whole grains in their meals?
If you’re a parent in a Chartwells district and would like to share your experiences with respect to whole grains in your child’s cafeteria, please feel free to contact me at bettina at thelunchtray dot com, or leave a comment below.
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Lindsey Parsons says
So cynical. Very disappointing. It takes >1 year for kids to get used to new products, like whole grains, but they do get used to them. If you keep the kids’ favorites, like pizza, tortillas, biscuits, waffles, pancakes, etc. using white flour, you’re essentially giving kids white flour 95% of the time, because that’s what makes up 95% of the menu, 95% of the selections, etc. I’m so tired of the illusion of healthy choices (e.g., some healthy dish the kids have never heard of and NO ONE SELECTS offered the same day as pizza, pancakes, chicken nuggets, etc.). If you’re sincere about teaching kids new tastes, you have to force the issue – serve two types of intact whole grain meals as the only selections on a given day.
Wendy says
Hear, hear!!
Justin Gagnon says
The USDA needs to eliminate the grain minimum ALTOGETHER. Why are districts struggling so much with this? Well, on one hand they’re REQUIRED to offer both a daily and weekly minimum of whole grains. What’s wrong with BBQ chicken with mashed potatoes and side of corn or green beans? Why are we requiring ANY grain to be offered to round out a meal like this, whole grain or otherwise?
This spring, we’re putting a gluten-free hamburger on the menu. The bun is a 4oz hamburger bun, and is a great product. It doesn’t, however, meet the “whole-grain rich” standard of the NSLP because the modified tapioca starch in the product exceeds the 2% minimum threshold allowed in the formulation. It is incredibly difficult to find a GF bun that is even palatable to kids, let alone find one that can hop through all of the hopes required by the USDA to qualify as “whole grain”. So what do we do? We offer it to only the private schools, since they’re not beholden to USDA math.
It’s all inside baseball. Sure, we can blast Chartwells for Whole Grain waiver, and talk about Perdue “gutting” the HHFKA and eschewing science to line the pockets or corporate donors at the expense of America’s youth. That’s one way to frame it.
Or we can look at how the USDA actually goes about calculating the “whole grain” requirement and realize that this entire “food math” methodology is completely asinine. All sorts of processed carbs are still making the way into our schools under the banner of “whole grain”, while other perfectly reasonable options are left out because they can’t make the math work. And don’t even try to plan a meal WITHOUT a creditable whole grain (sorry celiacs and paleo lover) – that’d just be flat unhealthy and will not be tolerated. Minimums must be met.
The USDA’s “Whole Grain Resource” should be required reading before people levy an opinion on relaxing whole grain standards. https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/WholeGrainResource.pdf
You’d be hard pressed to read through that come away thinking our current methodology for calculating whole grains is reasonable. Go ahead and take a favorite food from home and just try and fill out a “Formulation Statement for Documenting
Grains in School Meals”. It’s ridiculous. The legislation IS THE REASON districts are forced into the arms of big food. That’s how the game is setup.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Thank you, as always, Justin, for the food service perspective. I’m going to alert interested readers to check out your comment and will look at the USDA document as well.
Lindsey Parsons says
I hadn’t thought about the grain requirement for gluten-free options. Are there any allowances made by the USDA for gluten-free at all?
Just looked at your business. Love it! I’ve often thought about competing with school food in exactly the same way so as to force them to improve.
Justin Gagnon says
Lindsey – Here’s the USDA directive on allowances: “Generally, children with food allergies or intolerances do not have a disability as defined under either Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act or Part B of IDEA, and the school food service may, but is not required to, make food substitutions for them. However, when in the licensed physician’s assessment, food allergies may result in severe, life-threatening (anaphylactic) reactions, the child’s condition would meet the definition of “disability,” and the substitutions prescribed by the licensed physician must be made.”
So yes, if you have a life-threatening allergy, an allowance can be made on physician’s orders for substitution.
I would strongly caution against starting a business to compete as a means of driving improvement in the industry. The fundamental premise there is that the industry could improve where it driven to, but chooses not to because it’s stale and complacent. What that premise ignores is the significant burden of regulatory compliance. We serve both public and private schools. Our culinary team will come up with recipes for new entrees, and then our registered dietitian will do the analysis on how the entree would fit into the menu plan for our NSLP schools. She’ll often come to me with changes that need to be made for an entree work in the menu plan, and almost inevitably my response is the same – “Yeah, no one’s going to want to buy that”. Things using 1/2 cup of shelled edamame (which is an insane amount of edamame) instead of edamame in the shell for the Avocado Sushi roll because we need to meet the Meat/Meat Alternate minimum and pairing almost ALL of our gluten-free entrees with a whole-grain wheat roll to satisfy the grain minimum. A significant portion of the rolls that are taken end up in the trash, and the gluten-free student can’t take the roll anyway. Having to offer it to them in order to “comply” with Offer vs Serve is ridiculous.
If you do want to compete, you’ll need to get very, very well versed in the NSLP guidelines, and it will undoubtedly be frustrating. Now, if those regulations did not exist, could you hop right in and compete? Sure you could. This is why I believe that as much as the industry laments regulation publicly, it actually further provides job security by creating a significant barrier to entry for competition.
The SNA doesn’t lobby for relaxing school food regulations because they’re in the pocket of Big Food. The SNA lobbies for it because they’re the ones who actually have to follow the rules and do the job on a daily basis. The more complex and cumbersome the regulatory process, the further they are pushed into the arms of Big Food for help (whether they know it or not).
Kathleen Prechtel says
I agree with Justin’s last paragraph and the points he makes in his earlier posts are also valid. Creating menus that include “creditable” amounts of the required components in the required serving size that don’t exceed calorie, fat, and sodium requirements forces menu planners to use processed food in the interest of time and money. In many respects, USDA is their own worst enemy if their goal is to improve child nutrition. Recipe resources for the types of menu items you describe that meet the guidelines are becoming more readily available (thanks to USDA funding of Team Nutrition, Farm to School and Culinary initiatives, etc). However, the reality is many of these truly healthier “real food” menu items are not the usual fare in most American children’s diets so they are best introduced on try it days first. I applaud Chartwell’s for their intact whole grain initiative and the accompanying food education. This approach works well with kids. We ARE making progress everyday in changing the way kids think about food and what they eat but it is baby steps and the over regulation makes our job more difficult. Imagine all the time we could be spending on nutrition and food education, marketing, and menu development if we weren’t in our offices doing USDA food math.
Adam Russo says
Couldn’t you still offer your gluten free burger/bun and just offer the whole grain component on the side?
Justin Gagnon says
Yes, and that’s what we do. In our model, the entree is pre-ordered for the student, either by a parent, the student themselves, or the school. The student then comes through the lunch line and picks the rest of the components. As a general rule, we like for the entree plating to satisfy the grain/meat minimums so lunch pairing is more cohesive, and so the staff doesn’t end up slowing down the lunch line by counting disparate components.
We have a Chicken Caesar Salad without croutons as an option for our gluten-free students. In a recent audit, we told the auditor that we have whole-grain rolls at the lunch lunch to satisfy the grain minimum requirement, but that our gluten-free students don’t take them for obvious reasons.
She looked back, deadpan, and reply, “Yes, well THAT fad is a downward trend.”
We have a lot of families with allergen restrictions, whether for medical or personal reasons, and work hard to try and accommodate. The regs are not written to allow this type of flexibility, and from what I’ve seen, there is no interest from the USDA to allow for this level of flexibility in the offering. From there perspective, all of the boxes much be checked, the USDA food math must balance, and compliance must by observed in order to guarantee a healthy meal, in their eyes.
bw1 says
“realize that this entire “food math” methodology is completely asinine. All sorts of processed carbs are still making the way into our schools under the banner of “whole grain”, while other perfectly reasonable options are left out because they can’t make the math work.”
THIS^^^ This is exactly the problem with slavish dependence upon the federal leviathan for nutrition advice. The federal government is like 1000 foot tanker; it can’t turn quickly to save its life, but the science of nutrition is a slaloming speed boat. The entire whole grain fetish is about 10-15 years behind the science which is increasingly saying humans didn’t evolve to eat ANY grains.
“Are there any allowances made by the USDA for gluten-free at all?”
The way the federal government operates, there won’t be for at least 10 years.
“Having to offer it to them in order to “comply” with Offer vs Serve is ridiculous.”
But, but, according to Bettina, anything but a federal one-size-fits-all top down dixtat will cause children in red states to starve.
” This is why I believe that as much as the industry laments regulation publicly, it actually further provides job security by creating a significant barrier to entry for competition.”
Bingo. This is why regulation always favors the entrenched major players.
“all of the boxes much be checked, the USDA food math must balance, and compliance must by observed in order to guarantee a healthy meal, in their eyes.”
A healthy meal according to 15 year old obsolete and falsified theories, that is.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
As of March, 2016 I no longer respond to comments from this particular Lunch Tray reader: after several long years of debating with him/her, I’ve decided life’s just too short. But others can and should feel free to respond if they like.
Georgianna Mann says
Is there a list of the 600 districts that are participating with Chartwells? I’d be interested to browse their menus.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
I was unable to find any kind of list. If you’re able to find one, do let me know!
Coleen Donnelly, K-12 Corporate Chef, InHarvest says
InHarvest is a leading supplier of rice, grains and legumes. We support customers in our K-12 segment with education and culinary innovation.
We have been working closely with Chartwells for over a year on their intact grains program, as Margie Saidel mentioned in the blog post. During the first phase, we created an in-classroom training demo on making a grain salad, which she also referred to. This work demonstrated a commitment to educating schools on intact grains, an important step in gaining acceptance.
Last year I began working with the Chartwells regional chefs developing a myriad of intact grain recipes to be added to their recipe database. Over the summer of 2017, we worked on recipes covering all dayparts. This culminated in a development session last fall that included the Chartwells regional chefs and myself working out all of the recipes. We developed parfaits, muffins, overnight oats, salads, bowls, granola and grain “shakes” all containing intact grains. The session was attended by Chartwells upper management and was very successful.
We are currently planning regional trainings/presentations with their districts. It will take time for us to measure the success of our efforts (as is the case will most K-12 initiatives) but work is being done towards increasing the consumption of intact grains in Chartwells schools.
bw1 says
But this can’t be so, because Bettina just said that Chartwells is EVIL
Bettina Elias Siegel says
As of March, 2016 I no longer respond to comments from this particular Lunch Tray reader: after several long years of debating with him/her, I’ve decided life’s just too short. But others can and should feel free to respond if they like.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Coleen! I really appreciate this additional information and thank you for sharing it here. I do have some additional thoughts:
1. It’s been my experience with FSMC’s that there can be promising initiatives “at the top” that don’t necessarily filter down to schools. In other words, there can be demos, samplings and menus in the database, but still the recipes or programs aren’t always implemented by individual districts.
2. I also wonder how the nutritional equation would work out even in the best of circumstances. How many times a month would the average district actually menu the intact whole grain items? Would that frequency really make up for the loss of whole grains in foods that are much more commonly served by the vast majority of Chartwells districts: pizza, buns, tortillas and pasta?
3. I also wonder: if children are having such a hard time adapting to 50% white whole wheat flour in a pizza crust, as Chartwells maintains, is it realistic to assume that – without quite intensive outside support, like education, sampling, ongoing encouragement, etc (more support than most districts would have the time or resources to implement) – kids will happily consume (as opposed to just being served) the more palate-challenging intact whole grains?
Interested to hear what you or Chartwells or anyone else might have to share on those points, and thanks again for commenting!
bw1 says
” I also wonder: if children are having such a hard time adapting to 50% white whole wheat flour in a pizza crust, as Chartwells maintains, is it realistic to assume that….kids will happily consume (as opposed to just being served) the more palate-challenging intact whole grains?”
Kids have a preformed concept of how pizza is supposed to look and taste. Altering familiar foods is far more off-putting to most people than completely new dishes for which they haven’t developed partisan expectations.
Disclaimer: As of March, 2016 Bettina no longer responds to comments from me: after several long years of poor attempts at debating with me, she’s given up trying to offer any substantive response and has no stomach for anything but an echo chamber. But others can and should feel free to respond if they like.